OPEN THREAD…


Orwell saw them as a variation on the Ministry of Truth and he should know as he worked for them. New weekl, new open thread, ready, aim, FIRE…

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106 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. 1327 says:

    Heres an interesting one for the B-BBC regulars on a wet Monday afternoon – Which BBC shows (either TV or Radio) do you think are still a credit to a that organisation ?

    I will nominate the Sky at Night on TV (although the Beeb do their best to hide this show putting it on in the middle of the night and on what appear to be random days) and Moneybox on Radio 4. Both are similar plus a real rarity these days in that they appear to believe their audience is intelligent and they both ask well researched questions of those they interview. Sadly I fear both will be chopped in the next year or two.

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    • james1070 says:

      The Antiques Road Show, shame the format has been flogged to death by Flog-it.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Newshour on the World Service, those period-lifestyle reenactment programs (Can’t remember the names, but something like Victorian Manor House, the Daily Politics when Andrew Neil is awake, Victorian Pharmacy, and the like), the Proms, HIGNFY (biased, yes, but still funny and assumes the audience has paid attention in a way that the Daily Show doesn’t).

      I haven’t listened to Moneybox since 2001 when they told their audience to hold back from engaging in import/export business in the US after 9/11, which ended up harming me personally.

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      • james1070 says:

        I’s forgotten about those Victorian reenactment shows. I particularly enjoyed the one about the farm.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          I like that kind of history stuff (hands-on details, narrow focus, without pontificating, and not driven by any agenda other than how different things were back then), and I think it’s something that only the BBC would have greenlighted because it has that connection to British culture which the other networks just don’t have.  
           
          I admit that it’s entirely possible that other networks have done this sort of show and I just don’t know about it.

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      • Grant says:

        David P,
        I was going to say Moneybox, but even it has been dumbed down in recent months , although Paul Lewis is one of the few Beeboids who actually knows what he is talking about. (refers to your above post ).

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    • Martin says:

      The Sky at night is probably the only BBC programme that hasn’t been dumbed down by employing halfwits. Chris Lintott who now does the travelling stuff is a smart guy.

      Next month the Sky at Night is celebrating it’s 700th show, i do fear what will become of it once Sir Patrick pops his clogs.

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      • Julio says:

        They are grooming Ian Wright and Yasmin Alibhai Brown to take his place.

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      • Dazed-and-Confused says:

        I heard that Medhi Hasan has been lined up, in an attempt to prove once and for all, that the world is NOT round, and Islam IS peace.

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    • Buggy says:

      “Climbing Great Buildings” has been very good.

      “Genius” isn’t bad, but they’ve started buggering about with the format.

      And abviously anything with Diane “Nubian Sex Goddess” Abbott is a must watch. I just can’t wait until “This Week” is broadcast in 3-D – Red Triangle alert, methinks !  πŸ˜›

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      • Natsman says:

        I’d hoped for better things from “Climbing Great Buildings”, personally.  The concept of exploring the heights normally out of reach of the general public, and the addition of well-researched historical facts appealed to me. 
         
        BUT, as is so often the case with these programmes, it was utterly ruined by those taking part.  It was all too centered on those participating, on the dressing-up for mountaineering, on the swinging about on lines, on the abseiling, and particularly on Lucy Creamer (who no doubt is an accomplished climber) and her daft contributions of “cool”, “wow”, “amazing”, “fantastic”, “I know”, “yeah!” the whole time, and the propensity for Dr. Foyle to keep calling her “lady”. 
         
        It’s all too luvvy, too “right-on”, too presenter focused.  Just give us the facts, and the views, and less of the presenters swinging around like monkeys all the time, and the dafter bits of dialogue

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Yes, just like an installment of “Coast” which included a propaganda film on offshore wind farms.

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    • Grant says:

      Test Match Special  !!!!

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      • james1070 says:

        Don’t forget the mighty Top Gear. A program so successful abroad that it proves that the BBC does not need a TV Licence Fee.

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    • Tarquin says:

      University Challenge and Top Gear

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  2. Phil says:

    Did anyone see Laura Kuenssberg + another Beeboid (sorry, can’t remember) interview Andy Burnham on the News Channel yesterday?  Laura’s dewy-eyed adoration and nods of agreement with Burnham were sickening; I texted in to suggest I was going to vomit if she didn’t stop the love-in.  Did anyone else see it and/or has a copy of the clip?  It made me realise that Beeboid political correspondents don’t just know Labour politicians through their work, they probably count them as mates/heroes.  I can’t quite ever remember a Beeboid adoring a Tory politician in the same way – I wonder why!

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    • Asuka Langley Soryu says:

      To be fair, I don’t think she can help it. I think she has Parkinson’s disease. 

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  3. Millie Tant says:

    Praise be for the BBC. All hail the glories of Beeboidry for ever and ever.   O:-)

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  4. canon alberic says:

    I really like Clare in the Community.

    Today this morning had basically 90 minutes of spin for the new helmsboy and then Mathew D’Ancona up against the peoples Polly at the tale-end 8.50 slot. Other than D’Ancona I heard no voice for the government; indeed no voice that wasnt from within the Labour “movement”.

    Highlights included Ms Montague allowing firstly Tony Robinson (or the time twat as my children call him) to eulogise the new dawn without noticeable interruption; and then Derek Simpson spoonfed all the right lines to further the neutralisation of the obvious weakness that Milliband had been elected by Charlie Whelan (no mention of that sinister creep of course). Miss Montague practically apologised to the Unite Satrap when he took democratic exception to what he quite wrongly perceived to be her “shushing” him – as if – what he heard was the slavering of her tongue! 

    I expect they’ll be running with Ashcrofts tax strategies and Goves Building Workhouses for the Future programme tomorrow; as against fevered speculation from sundry Guardian hacks and Norman Smith about the composition of the brilliant new shadow cabinet.

    Yet the only Tories who take them on are Pickles (who is truly magnificent) and Gove (whom they clearly see as their first scalp). Spokesmen for the government should tell their brutal interlocutors to stop interrupting; directly challenge the sneering bias and call it for what it is; and if all else fails ask them how much they earn and where they educate their children.

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      I listed the running order on the “Red Ed on Marr” thread:  indeed it was a complete Tory-free, and indeed anything-that-wasn’t-Labour-free, zone.

      However don’t hold your breath waiting for Government spokesmen to take them to task for it, unless it’s Gove or Pickles, because they haven’t the balls.  Gove took Kirsty Wark to task on Newsnight re the Ashcroft bias, asking when they would concentrate on Labour non-doms.  “We will”, trilled Kirsty.

      They didn’t.

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    • Martin says:

      The Time Twat πŸ™‚ I love that, wish i’d thought of that one

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      • John Horne Tooke says:

        Ah Time Team how much can we make up from a minute piece of pot . “Definitely Roman whch indicates that this was a ritual site next door to the biggest Roman Villa in Britain”. Sherlock Homes would have been proud.  
         
        “Never in the field of archeology has so much been destroyed by so few ” and it only took three days.

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        • Buggy says:

          Time Team’s not a Beeby show, of course, but lawks! it would fit right in, starring as it does The Time Twat (Thanks to the canon for that).

          Some might recall that when NewLab were in the throes of their mania for elected mayors Time Twat was slated as their candidate for Bristol.
          (This would actually be vengeance from the very Heavens on the citizens of that blighted burg for their repeated failure to chuck the infant Time Twat into the Avon attached to a large boulder at the time he was growing up to his current height of 4’11 or so).

          The creature who wears stripey jumpers from the “Gyles Brandreth Reject Collection” is quite a specimen, too.

          And that beardie specimen, Francis something-or-other who I watched years ago presenting a programme about his own theories of our prehistory, which was interesting enough until he decided to devote the last ten minutes or so to delivering a polemic about colonialism, the Empire and basically any class enemies he could think of.

          Archaeology’s answer to the “Fun Boy Three”, then. And every bit as humourless as the originals. How I cheer when the rain buckets down upon them !

          Incidentally, you can usually get a good idea as to how productive a dig is going to be on this programme by the introduction of the ‘reconstruction’ bit of the show. Basically, if the bloke making the flint arrowheads/ iron age jewellery/ Roman posing pouch makes an appearance before the first lot of adverts then rest assured there’s nothing interesting afoot. 

          And certainly there’ll be absolutely no sign of the bloody “High-Status Temples” which, were this show to be believed, formerly dotted the land as thickly as fleas on a hippie.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          JHT,

          I haven’t seen the show, but could this really be that burial site for dead babies they found next to a big Roman brothel?

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  5. Gerald says:

    Not BBC bias but a bit of context. A survey reported in the Telegraph last week identified 1 in 66 (1.5%) as gay or bi-sexual. Various gay bodies, unsurprisingly felt that this was low!

    With, what, 3% of the population moslem, that makes two very small tails definitely wagging the dog.

    P. S. The DT unfortunately did not report on the level of “cross-over” between the two groups!

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      I wonder if they did that survey at the BBC what the percentage would be.  I expect it would not reflect the population of Britain.

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  6. David Vance says:

    Gerald

    That WOULD be an interesting stat! Still waiting for the BBC to argue for gay weddings in Mosque.   

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  7. Will says:

    BBC movie reviewer Mark Kermode boosts an upcoming film, “Made in Dagenham”, a 1960s tale of the equal pay strike by women workers at the Ford factory. Kermode likes it mainly because

    “It’s a political story that obviously I agree with”

    a shame that Kermode, fellow beeboids & lefties in general see no problem with today’s rising tide of Dagenham dwellers who have no time at all for equality for women.


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    • Cassandra King says:

      Of course the film and the BBC will not examine the role of the union barons in destroying Dagenham as a major manufacturing area, no films about the Marxist sabotage and the union corruption and bullying and repeat strike actions for no other reason than to cripple Ford.

      Its all a rosy memory of crusty but loveable union officials striving to better the workers situation and fighting against nasty capitalism. The BBC selective memory at work here UNLIKE the workers of Dagenham who lost their jobs because of the bullyboy unions who thought class war and revolution much more important than jobs.
      The insane strikes over nothing, the ridiculous  determination to fight modernisation and evolved working practices and even multi skilling was violently opposed which would have made a world of difference to the lives of the workers.

      Leftist/Marxist corrupt bully boy unions destroyed the bulk of our manufacturing base by industrial actions designed to achieve that very goal, a well off employed worker happy at work has no need of leftism/socialism/Marxism so they set about destroying to create their revolutionary rank and file foot soldiers..
      In the quest to build their workers paradise they vandalised and destroyed the entire British industrial economy.

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      • james1070 says:

        Ford is a private company therefore evil. You are right about the Union damage to British Leyland which was nationalised. The BBC should make a movie about Red Robbo and how he destroyed the British car industry.

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        • Buggy says:

          The Top Gear “British Leyland Special” did a very nice job of showing just what the unions got up to in their heyday.

          But then Top Gear can hardly be said to follow BBC editorial guidelines, after all.

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          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Jeremy Clarkson is a licensed jester. He thinks the BBC keeps him on because he’s brilliant and because he makes them piles of cash, but it’s really because he makes them piles of cash and he provides a public example of the ridiculous caricature the Beeboids all think conservatives actually are.

            Plus, you can bet that with all the licensing of the original plus the various international franchises of Top Gear, the BBC lets him babble whatever he likes to entertain the masses as long as they maintain power.

            After all, Clarkson beclowned himself ages ago when he printed his personal banking info in his Times column while bragging about how doing so wouldn’t really help anyone steal his identity and spend money out of his bank account (in an uninformed, knee-jerk response to some new security company ad campaign, IIRC).  Of course some eastern European youths took out two Barclays cards or something similar in his name within 72 hours.  The Beeboids loved that one as in their eyes the buffoon had just discredited all of his fans.

            I can’t tell you how many times I hear from certain British friends that Clarkson represents all that is wrong with Conservatives.  My reply is always, “Yes, of course, that’s why they have him on.  That, plus the cash the nomenklatura milk from the proles.”

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      • Martin says:

        No mention that the cars that got churned out of Dagenham were utter crapl.

        Dagenham dustbin anyone?

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  8. james1070 says:

    Obviously the last gasp of the British Film Council. It’s a remake by the way, I prefered the original, check it out

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    • james1070 says:

      Just found out that is was also funded by BBC films. So Kermode had to give it a good review. Otherwise out the door.

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      • Buggy says:

        He’s an interesting inversion, as commodes are normally for putting crap into, not pushing it out.

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  9. Alfred Burke says:

    Interesting article in the Mail on Victoria Wood.

    Generally she has a pop at the Beeb.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1315623/I-dont-feel-trusted-valued-says-Victoria-Wood-blasts-BBC-paymasters.html

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  10. cjhartnett says:

    Montague and Quinn head up the Beeboid harpies slavering over the “psychodrama” that is Miliband Major/Miliband Minor.
    Someone tell the sisterhood of Harman that none of it is worth a toss. They both win much as their silver spooned Marxist apologist intended…yet we`ll get no talk of nepotism or electoral stitchups here…for this is the “Peoples Party” doncha know-and they will dunk the taxpayers head in the pigswill pension pot of the States provision for ever…unlike nasty Thatch of course!
    Heard Frances Crook on Beyond Belief say that Christian extremists are the problem in jails…oh, as opposed to the Peace Be Upon Him identikits who are no threat at all…no sirree!…file the aptly named Crook as useful idiot number 101

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  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Funny how suddenly today the BBC is talking about how Labour has been split between two factions now that the Milibands are saying that’s all over.

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  12. Andrew Mars says:

    I just watched last Thursday’s edition of ‘Dimbleby’s Loony-Left Roadshow’ and it would appear that they’ve cut the percentage of non-Labour supporting audience members down from 2% to 1%.
    The most bizarre moment was when Redwood was booed for suggesting that Labour were responsible for the enormous deficit that they created when they were in power.
    Mehdi Hasan was as vile as ever. He seems to have obtained a season pass to the show just like that other self-righteous Islamic hypocrite, Salma Yaqoob.
    Interesting how the (Dis)Respect (the natives) Party gets so much representation on the BBC when they only have a handful of local councilors. 

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  13. fred bloggs says:

    Now Labour are trying to get back into power, how will bBC react.  By disinformation and OMISSION.  6.00 TV news ‘there will be no move to the right’ reassurance there is no move to the left,  ‘new labour is dead this is a newer Labour’.  Now the omission,  all the involvement with the unions, especially UNITE.  They provided half the union votes, his picture was sent out in the ballot envelope.

    If this story had a libcon equivalent it would be headline news and repeated as often as Coulson.  Watch out for the omissions, it will be happening in shed loads, but so difficult to prove!

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  14. Will says:

    At the Labour Party conference Emily Maitlis when interviewing introduces leading Labourites by their first name only. She obviously sees no problem in revealing the closeness of the BBC & Labour. I wonder if we will have similar familiarity next week – doubtful as all references this week are to “Osborne” & “Cameron” .

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  15. Alan Buckingham says:

    I note that although the IMF gives unequivocal support for the coalition economic policy, the BBC somehow manages to twist it to suggest that it supports the Labour Party’s line.  Even The Guardian hasn’t tried this. The last two paragraphs of this are a wonderful example of BBC bias: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11419937

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    • Martin says:

      Yep I posted on this earlier in the Ed Millipede thread Alan. You’re spot on. not a mention of the opposition from Liebour and the BBC to the cuts in that report, not one.

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    • Craig says:

      They didn’t give the IMF story much time, for guessable reasons, during the Six O’Clock News. No mention in the headlines and no report, only a very short chat between George and Steph, beginning at 6.21pm (way down the news agenda). Blink and you’d have missed it.

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      • Amy Smythe says:

        You have to remember that Steph of stephanomics is something of a Keynesian and so she is unlikely to like current policies. Sometimes she tries to be fair but at other times she is either boasting about where she has been or praising her former boss Larry Summers without pointing out she worked for him.

        Also she has got a few things wrong and once comments on her blog started to point this out she doesnt mention that subject again. For example she did not mention last weeks inflation numbers.

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  16. Martin says:

    What a shock. Channel 4 doing an excellent investigation into the Unions and corruption. The BBC? Panorama sticking the knife into the British army once again, with my all time favourite twat, Phil Shiner.

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  17. John Horne Tooke says:

    Looking at the photo of George Orwell reminded me of this interesting article by Leo McKinstry.

    “Was George Orwell a patriot or a traitor?”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-480187/Was-George-Orwell-patriot-traitor.html#ixzz10lFMjRgI

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  18. George R says:

    INBBC: reports for Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

    This INBBC ‘report’ largely takes the side of the Pakistan government, and opposes the position of the West and Nato.

    Apart from using the pro-=Islamic lingo of the INBBC ‘College of Journalism’, down to describing Islamic jihadists as ‘insurgents’, the overall emphasis of this INBBC report by Mr. Mynott is sympathetic to Pakistan government.

    INBBC’s Mynott is aware that the Pakistan government is using propaganda to appease its domestic Islamic constituency, but despite, or because of this, Mynott goes ahead and emphasises the anti-West political position:

    “The BBC’s Adam Mynott in Islamabad says Pakistan’s comments were mainly aimed at a domestic audience, among which US military activity is often unpopular.”

     Mynott’s anti-Nato tone continues to the end of his piece:

    “Isaf has not revealed the location of the raid operation or which country’s forces were involved. It said no civilians were killed in the operation, but this has not been independently confirmed.”

     Mynott thinks he knows what he is talking about, but this has not been independently confirmed.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11421435

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  19. Martin says:

    I see Stephanie Flanders has now worked out her BBC spin fo rLiebour over the IMF report.

    “It’s only one report”

    “The cuts could cause the economy to fail”

    “The IMF praised Gordon Brown last year”

    Then we get a sound bite from some Liebour jock spinning Tory cuts are evil crap.

    Anyone got a link to the BBC report on the IMF report of last year? I’m betting the BBC were GLOWING for the one eyed twat then.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Here’s Flanders herself from March 2009 using an IMF report to show that Gordon Brown’s Keynseian tactics were working just fine, thank you very much.

      There’s some support here for the Gordon Brown line that we come into this with relatively low debt. Our public debt was 43% of GDP in 2006 – well below the 78% average for the richer G20 economies. By 2014, the Fund now reckons our debt will have risen to 77%.

      You might think that sounds bad, but wait for it: by then, it thinks, the average will be 104% of GDP. It expects US debt to be touching 100% by 2014, and Japan’s debt to be 222% (it’s already 195%).

      Of course, these latter forecasts aren’t worth much – think how much the UK’s forecasts for 2009 have changed in the past year, let alone those for 2014. But if he wants to feel better about the state of the public finances, Gordon Brown might want to take a look at this graph from the IMF report.

      Just a week later, Flanders was happy that everyone – including her old boss, Larry Summers – wanted to use an IMF recommendation to promote more Keynesian money-printing.  Except nasty old Germany, of course.  This was right before Gordon Brown saved the world from global Depression (as the BBC was telling you at the time).

      Now for a blast from the past, from a time when Flanders was only Newsnight’s economics editor and didn’t influence BBC reporting in general.

      IMF give Brown borrowing warning

      been warned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that he risks breaking his own rules on government borrowing.

      In its annual assessment of the British economy, the IMF said the government needed to cut its spending deficit.

      And this:

      IMF warns UK of housing

      The International Monetary Fund has warned the UK it could be facing a dangerous house price bubble.

      The IMF said the UK’s economic prospects were generally good.

      But it singled out spiralling property prices – and the possibility of a deflationary crash – as an “appreciable” risk.

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  20. Martin says:

    I see the BBC didn’t get their own way.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/27/lord-ashcroft-investigation-bbc-panorama

    No doubt Newsnight had Michael Prick ready for a follow up along with Radio 5 and the Toady show.

    Take em to the cleaners Ashcroft.

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    • Guest Who says:

      “There has been enormous waste of public money chasing this story – from flights to the Caribbean, to expensive legal fees,” he said. “How the BBC could get itself into such a mess over such an easily checkable fact is laughable.”

      Er… not really. Did they hire Lord Creosote of Prescott to ‘host’ it.

      I understand he is partial to the odd 5* trip and wild legal claims.

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  21. George R says:

    INBBC relegates the Islamic jihad violent nature of the kidnapping:

    ‘Jihadwatch’:

    Taliban want to swap kidnapped British aid worker for jihadist Aafia Siddiqui

    INBBC:

    “Search for Scottish aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11419865

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  22. Paddy says:

    Hooray! me avatar works again.

    The Non labour member political commentators are as rare as rocking horse poo at the moment. I cant remember any tory conference having such an easy ride.  Why dont the beeb just add a red rose or a hammer and sickle to their logo. Do the bastards have no shame. Any pretense of objective journalism has gone out the window. Whats is really funny is someone referred to red ed a charismatic.  What? Charismatic  in a Terry and June sought of way. Charismatic in an Alan Partridge without the humour way.

    The good old British public can smell the shit they are shovelling and the only trouble that Eton Dave and the Cleggerons could possibly have  is if they fuck it up.

    Just been reading the com res site and labour is still trailing by 3 % which is the approximate average for the last 2 month.

    The Torys and the lib dems have been steady in spite of the  5 nights a week one hour party political broadcast by the labour party on BBC2 i.e. newsnight.

    If an advertiser had bought that airtime and their product hadnt seen a boost they would assume that the product was a dud. People arent taking the propoganda pills.

    David Cassie Craig Maritin David P keep up the pressure on the the smug bastards. 70% plus of the nation didnt vote labour. They pay the vast majority of the license fee and yet their money is misappropriated  and wasted on plolitical PR for a moribund dinosaur movement which is out of step out of time and out of office.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Miliband Minor may not have Alan Partridge’s humor, but he does have his teeth and affected speech.

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    • Grant says:

      Great post, Paddy.

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    • Guest Who says:

      LoL.

      I too have been trying to comprehend the weird notion, being pushed out on a ‘repeat it often enough..’ basis by mainly fragile-looking, cropped-bearded bald chaps, that this guy is a good looking, silver-tongued audience mesmeriser.

      I can only presume that everything is relative in the bubble.

      He can’t do much about his physical limitations, but in terms of personality comes across as the one who would be permanently getting a swirly at school for snitching on folk to teacher.

      Somehow he has been made hall monitor and given the milk money budget, so the weak bullies have seen him as a way to throw their weight around a bit. Guys like that usually end up as parking enforcement officers to compensate.

      As a leader….? Don’t make me laugh. He couldn’t get me to follow him to a beer festival even if he paid for rounds all night.

      The only reason the BBC is in collective knicker-wetting mode is that, of a very bad bunch, he has the box-ticking PC-brigade on twitter all ‘inspired’ by his ‘rhetoric’, which so far seems to consist of say what he’s not. And that… is a lot.

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  23. Grant says:

    I assume the big question the Beeboids will be asking Red Ed every time he is interviewed is how does he feel he can lead the party when he does not have the support of the party or Labour MPs ?
    For the first B-BBC poster to spot this question , I have , as a prize, a unique bottling of “Old McMong”  Irn Bru. This is not a “single Irn Bru “, but a subtle blend of “Old Dunfermline” and “New Harvard “, not available in the shops.

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  24. deegee says:

    Tongue very much in cheek:
    Public money ‘being misspent’ says global BBC poll

    There doesn’t seem to be a question about license fees and national broadcasters.

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  25. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ reluctant to report about its Romanian gypsies in Britain.

    ‘Daily Mail’:

    “In the dock: Modern-day Fagins who ‘sent 200 Romanian children to beg and steal in UK'”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315672/Modern-day-Fagins-sent-200-Romanian-children-beg-steal-UK.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz10oO8TdCY

    ‘Daily Telegraph’:

    “Romanian gipsy gang ‘snatched 200 children from homes to use them as beggars'”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/8027694/Romanian-gipsy-gang-snatched-200-children-from-homes-to-use-them-as-beggars.html

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  26. Dazzler says:

    what with everything in the world today would BBC Wales come up with as a headlline that involves golf. Er..club membership is down accross the WHOLE country.

    “Membership over the last few years is going down but participation in golf is going up,” she explained. “Golfers are choosing to play differently.” says Hannah Fitzpatrick.
     Why golf? Well we’ve got the Ryder Cup        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11345841

    We’ve also got a bunch of wannabe journo’s all scrapping to get intothe course for free and do what BBC staff always do. get as much as possible for free. Suck up to anyone with a pair of spikes and lord it up for a week. “We got our own team to report all week” I heard on the radio. I bet you have.

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    • Guest Who says:

      a bunch of wannabe journo’s all scrapping to get intothe course for free and do what BBC staff always do. get as much as possible for free. ‘

      Indeed. While the ‘skillset’ does seem vague to me, I guess for those of a sporting bent a few guides are legitimate,. Though the vast squads bred like rabbits in a links course and hired to scamper about asking a few of what can only be a limited set of questions, seems… excessive.

      Bloke hits ball. Ball goes into hole. Or misses. 

      Over to the analysis team now….

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  27. Guest Who says:

    Some may find this funny.

     

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/24/1?CMP=twt_gu

     

    Though, perhaps, not so many reporters/editors/correspondents/analysts in the BBC.

     

    Being pwned by the Graun. That’s gotta hurt.

       0 likes

  28. Martin says:

    Radio 5 ‘defending’ QUANGOS this morning. I couldn’t stop laughing when vikki Pollard stated “…but no politician would set up an organisation that didn’t have a useful function…”

    Of course not Vikki, what do you think Gordon McTwat was filling the jobs section of the Guardian with for 13 years.

       0 likes

    • David Jones says:

      I heard a snatch of this while making my coffee. The Film Quango (whatever it’s called) gives funds for film-making but only on the basis that equal sums are raised elsewhere. Where are those other funds raised? Oh the BBC and Channel 4 of course! We’re stuffed both ways.

      If only I could bear more than 3 minutes of these programmes, I could contribute much more to this site!

         0 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        I have the same problem. There’s not a lot I can listen to for long on the BBC nowadays. Mostly I dip in to programmes from time to time rather than every day and even then I often switch off.  I do listen to bits and pieces posted here from Today for example, but can’t abide the programme and avoid it like the plague. Mostly avoid the Beeboid News in general.

           0 likes

  29. Natsman says:

    “… Which BBC shows (either TV or Radio) do you think are still a credit to a that organisation ?…”

    What used to be Closedown, I think…

       0 likes

  30. David Preiser (USA) says:

    As an antidote to the sudden, deafening silence from the BBC about the upcoming US mid-term elections, here’s some news the BBC doesn’t want you to know about:


    San Francisco Chronicle won’t endorse Democrat incumbent


    Californians are left with a deeply unsatisfying choice for the U.S. Senate this year. The incumbent, Democrat Barbara Boxer, has failed to distinguish herself during her 18 years in office. There is no reason to believe that another six-year term would bring anything but more of the same uninspired representation. The challenger, Republican Carly Fiorina,has campaigned with a vigor and directness that suggests she could be effective in Washington – but for an agenda that would undermine this nation’s need to move forward on addressing serious issues such as climate change, health care and immigration.

    It is extremely rare that this editorial page would offer no recommendation on any race, particularly one of this importance. This is one necessary exception.

    This is the equivalent of the L’Osservatore Romano declining to endorse a sitting Cardinal Secretary of State.  Even with the President’s agenda dying on the vine, the Chronicle won’t encourage their readers to help maintain the Democrats’ majority.  That’s how bad things are.

    The Obamessiah had to cut prices for an audience with Him in half, and still couldn’t fill the house.


    Six weeks before the election, President Obama couldn’t fill the ballroom at the Roosevelt Hotel, despite cheap tickets on offer. And then he was met by hecklers.

    Who would have thought that six weeks before a cliffhanger election, President Obama would have to reach down to the D list to fill a room to listen to him? Most of us low rollers arrived early to see President Obama up close and personal. Our tickets for the general reception at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York were only $100. Some thought the email invitation was a joke. Some bought tickets for $50 from their desperate Democratic committeeman. Some bought the same day.

    The President is now trying to (illegally) use churches and religious organizations to promote enthusiasm for His Health Care Plan For Us.

    Pastors for ObamaCare?


    If the White House office of faith-based initiatives is going to be used as propaganda unit, it might as well be shut down.

    Instead of any of this, the BBC uses the website to feature stories about an investigation of a US soldier in Iraq, and another one in Afghanistan, along with the usual fluff and something about the President frowning at Israel.  The only real domestic story is about Rahm Emanuel thinking about running for mayor of Chicago.  What’s the point of all those Beeboids Katie Connolly hired, then?

       0 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Is anyone else having trouble with the “Like” feature today?

       0 likes

  32. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Make up your own jokes.  I’m not saying a word:

    Pedophiles Find a Home for Social Networking – on Facebook

       0 likes

  33. George R says:

    For INBBC, and its politically edited view of London:
    are Items 1 and 2 connected?

    Item 1.) “Islamisation of London”

    (A French TV report: 11 mins video; interesting how this French report sees aspects of London clearer than does INBBC.)

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/29915

    Item 2.) “We’re not ashamed of East End for Olympic marathon, insists Lord Coe”

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23882715-its-the-germans-fault-that-olympic-marathon-is-being-steered-away-from-east-end.do

       0 likes

  34. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More news on US issues that the BBC won’t tell you.  This time, it’s about yet more proof that all the propaganda about ObamaCare the BBC fed you (using your license fee to promote the domestic agenda of the leader of a foreign country) was false.

    Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan

    Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.

    The decision by Wellesley-based Harvard Pilgrim, the state’s second-largest health insurer, was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements and a new requirement that insurers offering the kind of product sold by Harvard Pilgrim — a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan — form a contracted network of doctors who agree to participate for a negotiated amount of money. Under current rules, patients can seek care from any doctor.

    A reminder of BBC propaganda on behalf of a foreign leader. See anything there that might tell you this was going to harm people and prevent them from getting health insurance?

       0 likes

  35. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Remember that “Coffee Party” thing, about which the BBC immediately reported to you enthusiastically and lying about how it’s a “grassroots US political grouping” within days of its formation?  This was in stark contrast to their silence on the Tea Party movement for two months until the reality of hundreds of thousands of people across the country forced them to report it?  And even then Kevin Connolly said that he could “detect the hand” of national organizations pulling our strings.

    Last week they had their national convention.  Only 350 people showed up.  That’s not even a drop in the teacup compared to turnout at local Tea Party events.  Where’s the BBC reporting on the Coffee Party now?  Where’s the BBC reporting on any evidence that faith in The Obamessiah is waning, and that Democrats barely showed up at the polls in the last primaries?  Even a JournoLista and one of the blogs regularly referenced by Katie Connolly says it’s a problem.

    I guess Katie and Matty and Marky are waiting until Friday’s edition of Rolling Stone comes out, with the interview with the President in which He scolds the faithful and warns of dire consequences if they don’t show Him the love in the November mid-terms.

       0 likes

    • Martin says:

      I saw a report on Fox last night that showed MSNBC’s news only watched by somethin like 12% of people. Fox is no1 all over the place. Yet still the BBC attacks and sneers at Fox.

         0 likes

  36. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Now even Democrat candidates are promising partial repeal of ObamaCare if elected.

    BBC?  Zzzzzzzzzz.

       0 likes

  37. John Horne Tooke says:

    Compare and contrast these two searches on the BBC site.

    1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/ed_miliband

    2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/david_cameron

    Which one is supported by the “impartial” BBC?

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      That contrasting snapshot JHT is worth capturing here for posterity (as of 9pm today):

      Search results on BBC website for ‘Ed Miliband’, under BBC News:

      1 Landale’s View: What Ed Miliband meant
      NEW 3 hours ago | Politics

      2As it happened: Labour conference Tuesday
      NEW 4 hours ago | UK

      3 Business worried about Miliband tax and wage calls
      NEW 4 hours ago | Politics

      4 Iraq war was wrong, says Labour leader Ed Miliband
      NEW 4 hours ago | Politics

      5 Ed Miliband: Labour leader’s 2010 conference speech in full
      NEW 6 hours ago | Politics

      In contrast,

      Search results on BBC website for ‘David Cameron’, under BBC News:

      1 Ed Miliband sets out his thoughts for Labour’s future
      NEW 2 hours ago

      2 Defence chiefs and ministers debated strategic review
      NEW 17 hours ago | Politics

      3 Ed Miliband tells Labour: We’re the optimists now
      27 Sep 10 | Politics

      4 David Cameron’s newborn baby ‘sleeps in cardboard box’
      24 Sep 10 | Politics

      5 Profile: Ken Livingstone
      23 Sep 10 | London

      Just amazing!

         0 likes

      • DaveShaw says:

        Anyone unfortunate enough to catch the delightful 5Live on the way home tonight (from about 17:45) will have “enjoyed” Lord Sugar (who attacked the coalition unchallenged), followed by someone (I missed their name) else who was pro-Labour. Then at 6 O’Clock was a full 15-20 minutes of “Red Ed”, and various Labour politicians and Derek Simpson singing the parties praises. 

           0 likes

  38. John Horne Tooke says:

    Thought I’d do a screen capture

       0 likes

  39. John Horne Tooke says:

    I like this

    “This is a brief synopsis of what I think Labour’s new leader Ed Miliband meant to get across to us in his first big speech to the party conference:..”

    “Of what I think”?  Who cares what he thinks Milliband said? We know what he said.

       0 likes

  40. Martin says:

    Sky now ITV reporting of Muslim terror attacks in Europe. Over at the BBCzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      Yes, INBBC is probably working out how to produce an as Islam-friendly as possible headline, such as:

      “Plot, not independently confirmed.”

         0 likes

  41. Buggy says:

    Apologies if this has already been linked:

    http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100926/arts/arts3.html

    Whoops !

       0 likes

    • Martin says:

      Buggy, your Avatar is really scary.

         0 likes

      • Buggy says:

        You supplied it, oh short-memoried one. 

        Still here’s a nice new piccie (and a shiny NEW avatar for me !) Hope you like. πŸ˜‰

        <img style=”width: 96px; height: 73px; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://js-kit.com/blob/tJ3mOr_4jBe1ou32kYMEvy.jpg”/>

           0 likes

  42. hippiepooter says:

    Hugo Chavez praises ‘Hard Talk’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8733680.stm

    Can’t wait.

       0 likes

  43. David Preiser (USA) says:

    While the platoon of activists the BBC hired to cover US issues are distracting you with worries over whether or not Rahm Emanuel will jump ship and run for mayor of Chicago, here’s a far more important story about an associate of the President the BBC doesn’t want you to know about:

    FBI investigates prominent labor leader Andy Stern


    The FBI and the U.S. Labor Department are investigating prominent labor leader Andy Stern in their probe of corruption at the Service Employees International Union, according to two people who have been interviewed by federal agents.

    The two organized labor officials met with federal agents this summer to answer questions about a six-figure book contract that Stern landed in 2006 and his role in approving money to pay the salary of an SEIU leader in California who allegedly performed no work.

    Why is this more important than Rahm sensing an opportunity for real personal power, which is far more important to him than being the President’s enforcer?  Here’s why:

    The disclosure about the federal inquiry of Stern – who abruptly resigned as president of the 2.2-million member SEIU in April – comes just weeks ahead of contentious congressional elections in which the union is spending an estimated $44 million to support its favored Democratic candidates.

    Plus this:

    Stern left his post two years before the end of his term, saying he wanted to focus more on his personal life. He remains a member of President Barack Obama’s deficit commission and a highly influential figure in the White House, where he was one of the most frequent visitors last year.

    The Obamessiah is only slightly less beholden to the SEIU than Miliband Minor is to Unite.  Stern has not only been one of the most frequent visitors to the White House, he was the first one the President invited on the day of His ascension.

    William Ayers was also granted an audience at the White House during the first few months.  You may remember him as the domestic terrorist and Marxist whom Candidate Obamessiah claimed He barely knew.

       0 likes

  44. Paddy says:

    Michael Prick truely takes the biscuit.

     On a night of the leaders speech at the Labour conference where we were probably witnessing the end of the political careers of the man most labour members voted for.
     On a night where that person was bristling  again at the betrayal by his bother.
     On a night when Harriet the Harpy was shown up to be the total hypocrit she is, who does prick end up attacking but the Tories.His review of the papers followed the usual selection criteria i.e. read the top story from the Indy and the Grauniad, laugh at the ‘extremism’ of the mail and then dig deep into the Tory graph to find anything vaguely critical of the conservatives.

    Labour is split in its lurch to the left  and all prick can do is damage limitation by having a poke at the tories using a leaked email.

    Its a bit like the Belfast telegraph publishing an article that a liverpool ship had faulty plumbing on the day the titanic went dowm. Todays disaster was too great for spin and Prick was exposed as the propagandist he is.

    (Now this email was leaked or was it stolen. Depends if its on or off message. Dont forget hot weather climate change cold weather is just weather. Emails are stolen if you dont like the leaker and leaked if you like the thief.)

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Paddy, that’s Crick all over!

      When three Labour MPs, including Stephen Byers, were caught by Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ offering themselves as “taxis for hire”, Crick’s only comment on his blog was that this was ironic because Stephen Byers couldn’t drive.

      When three other Labour MPs (including ex-ministers) and a Torrrry council leader were prosecuted, he spun on ‘Newsnight’ that the Torrry council leader was “the most senior politician of the four”.

      When Sir Thomas Legg sent out letters to MPs and asked for £12,415 pounds back from Brown but only a request for more information from Cameron, Crick ignored that and spun that he saw a furious Torrry MP tear up his envelope and stomp off, that the Torrries – including Cameron – claimed bigger amounts. The same day saw Jacqui Smith in trouble again over expenses. Crick didn’t even mention it.

      When Labour PPS Eric Joyce resigned over the government’s Afghan policy and its treatment of the army, Crick briefly popped up to say that he “is NOT a big name” and that “PPS is the lowest rank in the government”.

      Reporting on his blog about a local scandal involving Torrries, he moaned about the neglect of the story by other media outlets and wrote “In part, I think, it’s the mood of the times, where the media dwells upon every misdemeanour by Gordon Brown and his Labour colleagues.” No-one could accuse Crick of having done that!

      You can tell if a story is REALLY bad for Labour. Crick goes into purdah. He disappeared for days when Bigotgate hit Gordon Brown. When Brown was at the Chilcot Inquiry he was nowhere to be seen.

      I could go on! There are scores more examples of this sort of thing from Crick.

      His just-as-biased colleague Mark Easton knocked up a spoiler piece about MPs travel expenses on the day of the ‘Dispatches’ revelations. Crick concentrated on that rather than the Byers, Hewitt and Hoon story, as it contained a roughly equal number of people from all parties, including errant Torrries.

         0 likes

  45. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Matt Frei has read an aritcle in the Washington Post about how brilliant China is, and is reminded that he needs to spread a little China Love around.

    A corner of booming China in Washington

    We all know Frei is never going to mention China’s looming real estate bubble or civil unrest.  No, he’s going to bash the US and praise China.  While the US is on a fool’s errand in Iraq and Afghanistan (“In Afghanistan, American troops may be sacrificing blood and treasure to make the country safe for education and voting.”), China is buying up rights to minerals and resources and just basically being totally awesome.

    Note how he’s full of compliments for China’s brilliant ability to get more oil rights in Iraq than the US.  Maybe Frei should have a talk with Greg Palast, whom Newsnight hired to tell you that Bush planned to conquer Iraq for oil even before 9/11.

    Frei sums up by comparing China to the Dutch East India Company at its peak.  This is the same Matt Frei who wished that we could all have a little autocratic rule once in a while.

    A few weeks back, Matt Frei whined about being forced to start blogging, and here we see the uninspired result.  He read an article in the BBC’s thought-leading publication, and so banged out a biased blog post about it.

       0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      I don’t suppose he had much to say about Chinese citizens’ rights when he was waxing lyrical about Iraq oil rights. He is such a fantasist and so easily carried away with any nonsense that blows by him in the wind.

         0 likes

  46. David Jones says:

    Robin Shepherd has another piece up about the BBC’s treatment of Israel and Palestine.

    “In a piece entitled, Middle East talks: Core issues, BBC World Affairs Correspondent Paul Reynolds makes a decent fist of giving the Israeli, Palestinian and American positions on Jerusalem, borders, settlements, refugees and security. It’s biased of course, and I would have written it very differently, but there’s nothing especially dramatic to complain about.

    “What is so interesting, however, is that even in a relatively sober frame of mind top BBC journalists are completely incapable of recognising that the ultimate core issue in this conflict is the refusal of the Palestinian side to internalise the existence of the state of Israel as a legitimate nation in the world and to accept that Jews have a legitimate claim to their land in the Middle East.”

    Paul Reynolds used to comment on this site.

       0 likes